Itâ€™s the perfect storm, Pakistan style. This Friday was the hottest day Lahore has suffered in the last 29 years, with the temperature shooting up as high as 47 degrees centigrade, a record according to the Pakistan Metrological Department. And on this sweltering Friday, the unlucky city of Lahore also experienced record levels of load-shedding, which lasted for up to twenty hours in some areas.

The power crisis has worsened in the last 48 hours, as cities and rural areas alike plunged into darkness after four power plants tripped due to overload. Believe it or not this was the good news, as the tripping of the power plants avoided the near-collapse of the National Grid System, similar to the one that took place on February 24.

While there are no easy fixes to this problem, despite what politicians may have claimed in their election campaigns, short-term relief is possible if enough money is injected to temporarily resolve the circular debt issue. But even thatâ€™s not happening. After making an initial commitment to interim Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso to provide a sum of Rs22.5 billion to the water and power ministry, a defiant Ministry of Finance remains reluctant to release the remaining Rs17.5 billion for fuel purchases.

Currently, power stations are producing energy well below their capacity. Against the public sectorâ€™s available installed thermal capacity of 3,580MW, Fridayâ€™s production stood at a paltry 1,305MW.

Out of the 11 thermal power plants in the public sector, seven are completely shut down, while the rest of the power plants are not running at even one-third of their capacity due to fuel shortages and technical faults.
Independent Power Plants (IPPs) are also facing production shortfalls. With a generation capacity of 7,687MW, energy production at IPPs is currently at 5,024MW as most of the plants remained closed due to non-availability of fuel.
â€œIn the past 10 days, I ran my plant for five days but only received payment for running it for a day and a half,â€ complained the Chief Operating Officer of Saif Power Plant Sohail Haidri.

Haidri threatened to shut his plant on Saturday, if the government did not clear his dues.